Curlers get say in tourney format
By CON GRIWKOWSKY -- Edmonton Sun
HINTON -- Power to the players!
When the new, improved 12-team men's curling provincial is unveiled next year at Innisfail, its final look will be determined by competitive curlers.
Options for change would include a 12-team seeding by the players, a draw to the button to determine hammer before each game and the final look of the playoff format.
The Alberta Curling Federation delivered a survey to ACF player rep Adrian Bakker of Calgary late last week.
LARGER ROLE
After getting support from all its regional associations for a 12-team format, ACF executive director Jim Pringle started work on planning how curlers could play a larger role in the on-ice product.
Bakker is now working on contacting every team that entered this year's playdowns. Teams at this year's provincial will get their ballots after Saturday's final round-robin play. First ballots are due back April 1.
Seeding, of course, has been a big issue, considering next year's format will have two pools of six teams each.
The team that wins this Sunday will be back. The top Alberta-based points team as determined by the Canadian Curling Association's points ranking system as of April 30 will be in. Throw two ACF bonspiel series leaders by Dec. 30 into the mix to the traditional eight and a potential for imbalanced pools existed.
That's why players like Trent McQuarrie of Lethbridge say that seeding is a must under the new format.
"You'd have to seed them," said McQuarrie. "A player vote would be the best. Everybody's played everybody. Everybody knows who's been to provincials how many times or who's won Canadians, worlds, Olympics.
"Players should have a lot more say in how it's run. All the players can accept how they're seeded by the other players. If you do it any other way, there may be death threats."
McQuarrie echoes what many players have been saying over the years on the seeding issue.
"It would be fun," he said. "It would be more interesting."
Pringle, a former cashspiel player, has left it up to the players to compile the results.
"The survey asks every player that could have got here their opinion," said Pringle, who's been working for years to put together a palatable system that could be more easily marketed.
If a majority of the players vote for seeding, the 12 teams that make it to next year's field will seed themselves two days after the district playdowns.
"We tried to set up a win for every stakeholder involved. "The new format will only add two round-robin games (from 28 to 30), so we haven't put a huge burden on the host committee. We have four draws on Wednesday and Thursday, so that will help sell tickets.
"They're going to be able to market two teams from April on, which will help them with local sponsorship."
VARIETY OF AVENUES
A 16-team format was considered, but rejected as too cumbersome and costly.
"It gives players a variety of avenues to qualify for the provincial championship, which is something they've asked for before," said Pringle. "We think this is the most positive of all the compromises."
Edmonton's Brent MacDonald is not against the seeding concept, but realizes that there's no guarantees.
"Seeding would give the fairest representation, but anything can happen - you've seen that in any sport," said MacDonald.
"At least they're trying to work on things and work with the players on it. That's a good step.
"In the past, it's kind of been mandated how things are and how things are going to work, so this is a good thing trying to accommodate some of our requests."
